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Italian Forces in World War II
When it comes to World War II, most historians cover the military actions of the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Japan or Russia. Events associated with the Italian war effort are usually limited to criticism. In post-war Italy, authors like Antonino Trizzino accused the Italian admirals of being traitors. His accusation helped destroy the reputation of the Italian Armed Forces in North Africa, until the British Enigma machine became common knowledge decades later. Claims of Italian lack of military successes and valour in combat do not stand up to scrutiny when official records of the campaigns in North Africa, France, the Balkans and Russia are closely examined."There were some courageous efforts by Italian units against Australians at Alamein, but these have gone largely unnoticed in Australian writings ... In wartime and published Australian accounts of Alamein actions, it is not always possible to determine whether "the enemy" referred to was German or Italian ... However, the lack of credit probably derives more from a desire to inflate Australian achievements, and an unwillingness to acknowledge reverses against Italians." Fighting the Enemy, Mark Johnston, pp. 12-13, Cambridge University Press, 2006]"Jokes about Italy's lack of military prowess and faint-heated approach to combat also did not stand up to scrutiny when he examined records of campaigns such as North Africa, Greece, the Balkans and Russia." Italian forces in WW2 were not soft and Mussolini wasn't a clown, revisionist historian claims Balkans In October 1940, Benito Mussolini declared war on Greece. Attempts by the Italian Army to invade Greece ended in stalemate. North Africa The Italian invasion of British Egypt was initially to coincide with Operation Sealion, the aborted German invasion of Great Britain in 1940. When it became apparent to Mussolini that Sealion was postponed indefinitely, he ordered Marshal Rodolfo Graziani to launch his 10th Army, across the Egyptian border from Italian Libya. Graziani led his numerically superior Italian force across the border in September 1940 against a smaller but highly mobile British rearguard and Egyptian Frontier Guards. The invasion was halted, and by December of that year the Italian forces in Egypt were on the defensive. Although outnumbered, General Archibald Wavell ordered a British counter-offensive on 9 December 1940, Operation Compass. The Italians suffered 100,000 POWs and were pushed back more than 800km (500 miles). In late January 1941, the British Commonwealth troops attacked General Ferdinando Cona's 20th Corps and captured Derna, a town of 10,000 Italian nationals, only after much fierce fighting."Jan. 30.—The third major Italian bastion to fall in Libya—Derna, 175 miles west of the Egyptian frontier—was occupied today by British imperial troops after four days of the bitterest resistance offered by the Fascists in the whole of the African campaign. The town had been defended by less than 10,000 Italians, British sources disclosed, but they fought with a violence encountered nowhere else in General Sir Archibald P. Wavell's long continued thrust to the west." British Take Derna After Fierce Fight, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 31 January 1941 German General Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli, Libya, in February 1941 and over the next month assembled an ad hoc German light infantry division with panzer and crack motorized infantry, to give the Italians the firepower and leadership needed to defeat the British. He assumed command of the Deutsches Afrika Korps (Afrika Korps or DAK) and with only 20 Bf 110s and 60 Ju 87s"By the end of February 1941, 5th Squadra Aerea had more than 120 serviceable aircraft in Tripolitania, while the Luftwaffe had only 80 (20 Bf 110s and 60 Ju 87s). With this modest air support, Gen Rommel began an offensive on 24 March, and by 13 April had recaptured all of Cyrenaica with the exception of Tobruk. In the Skies of Europe: Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945, Hans Werner Neulen, p. 48, Crowood, 2000, he received much needed help from the Regia Aeronautica in Libya to force back the exhausted British Commonwealth forces."The Royal Air Force had sent the best squadrons in the Middle East to support the operations in Greece, leaving the bombers and fighters of the Regia Aeronautica a free hand to harass the retreating British mercilessly. Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel, Daniel Allen Butler, p. 210, Casemate, 2015 The Italian Stukas made their debut in North Africa on 11 January 1941 in conjunction with German dive-bombers from X Fliegerkorps, Italian pilots crippling the British aircraft-carrier HMS Illustrious with 1,000 pound bombs"In the afternoon, Ju.87s from the 237 Squadriglia scored a direct hit on the aircraft carrier and forced her to leave the formation and head towards Malta for shelter and repairs." Italian Stukas, 1940-42"Around midday on January 10, waves of Italian air force Ju87 Stukas attacked the ship, and six or seven thousand-pound bombs hit their target, set fire to aviation fuel below decks and destroyed the carrier's steering system, the attack took only ten minutes." Aces, Warriors and Wingmen, Wayne Ralph, p. 15 , John Wiley & Sons, 2008, including the rear-liftL’Attività Aerea Italo Tedesca nel Mediterraneo, Francesco Mattesini, Ufficio Storcico dell’Aeronautica, 2a Edizione, 2003forcing the carrier to limp back to Malta for repairs, allowing the safe arrival of the Afrika Korps in February. Although Rommel’s leadership ability and German firepower certainly helped the struggling Italian forces, Italian fighters and bombers also played a significant role in forcing the Australians to abandon Benghazi, the British Commonwelath forward supply base in Libya."The Australians pressed on the heels of the Italian Tenth Army as it passed through Benghazi. ... There was virtually no enemy air activity, however, in this battle but, within a few days, Italian aircraft began bombing Benghazi which was in British use as a forward supply point." Anti-aircraft artillery, 1914-55, Volume 4, N. W. Routledge, Brassey's, 1994 The Italian Army Ariete Armoured Division and Brescia and Trento Motorized Infantry Divisions arrived in North Africa in February 1941 along with Rommel's Afrika Korps (DAK). The Ariete was composed of 6,949 men, 163 tanks, 36 field guns, 61 anti-tank guns. Rommel had a total of 100,000 Italians, 1,000 Italian guns and 151 Italian aircraft under his command. He also had 7,000 Italian trucks supplying munitions to the frontlines. During Rommel's first desert offensive, it was the Ariete Armoured Division and 8th Bersaglieri Regiment who formed the spearheads of the DAK, obtaining Rommel's first victory in North Africa with the capture of the British fortress of Mechili and 3,000-strong garrison on 8 April 1941. It was also the units of the Ariete, Trieste, Bologna, Brescia, Pavia and Trento Divisions that actually manned the actual siege lines around Tobruk, capturing 14 strongpoints on 1 May and 16 May along with 500 Australian soldiers. During Operation Brevity and Operation Battleaxe in May and June 1941, Italian soldiers under the command of fine Italian officers (Colonel Ugo Montemurro and Major Leopoldo Pardi) stood their ground and fought British tanks with anti-tank guns, giving and taking losses and severely blunting the strong British armoured offensives. During Operation Crusader in November 1941, it was the Ariete Armoured Division and 8th Bersaglieri Regiment who defeated the British 7th "Desert Rats" Armoured Division at Bir el Gub, knocking out 40 Crusader tanks and derailing the initial British armoured attacks in the process. During Operation Venezia, it was the Ariete who ploughed through the British-officered 3rd Indian Brigade on 27 May 1942 and fought off repeated British armoured counter-attacks.Ariete at GazalaWith Rommel's panzer divisions completely surrounded and out of fuel and water at the start of the Axis offensive, the Trieste came to their rescue, thus saving Rommel from an early exit in the North African Campaign."At this time the British thought they had Rommel cornered and he himself contemplated surrender, but the Italian 'Trieste' Division managed to open a route through the minefield and get a supply column to him." Engagements - 1942 The capture of the Mersa Matruh fortress in late June 1942 is often credited to the German 90th Light Division but the real damage was in fact done by the gunners of the Italian Brescia and Trento, who stuck to their guns despite the fierce British air attacks, and the Littorio Armoured Division who along with the Bersaglieri Corps overran 1,000 Gurkhas regrouping on the outskirts before surrounding and penetrating the British fortress during the Battle of Mersa Matruh, capturing another 6,500 POWs at bayonet point. The Bersaglieri soon afterwards shepherded into captivity another 1,000 disoriented New Zealanders who had lost their way during the fighting. The main Axis defences of the El Alamein front were formed by the Bologna, Pavia, Trieste, Trento, Sabratha and the Folgore Airborne Division, supported by the Ariete, Littorio Armoured Divisions, Bersaglieri Corps and Afrika Korps. As noted in "A Pint of Water Per Man" by US War Correspondent Harry Zinder from TIME magazine, it was the Italians who stubbornly manned the anti-tank guns during the Second Battle of El Alamein, destroying Brigadier John Cecil Currie's 9th Armoured Brigade at Tel el Aqqaqir and covering the German retreat. Italian troops were the main defenders in the Tunisian Campaign and the 5th and 7th Bersaglieri Regiments were Rommel's spearhead during the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Along with the Centuaro Armoured Division"At 4:30 P.M., 20 February, Axis troops rolled through Kasserine Pass. A battalion of the Centauro Division headed west on the road to Tebessa ... The battlegroup from the 10th Panzer Division under Fritz von Broich followed the Centauro battalion into the pass but headed north following the branch road toward Thala." Exit Rommel: The Tunisian Campaign, 1942-43, Bruce Watson, p. 102, Stackpole Books, 2006, the Bersaglieri rolled up Colonel Anderson Moore's 19th Combat Engineers Regiment holding the mountain pass and Highway 13"Axis forces also made a breakthrough on Highway 13, where the Italians of the Centauro Division spearheaded the attack. In the early morning hours, the Italians pressed their offensive, broke through the remains of the American line, and continued up Highway 13." Facing The Fox, with 2,450 Allied soldiers falling into Italian hands POWs. As German morale crumbled during the Battle of Tunis and the entire Afrika Korps ceased contesting the American advance, the Italian 1st Army under General Giovanni Messe continued to fight for another week, derailing the advance of the 2nd New Zealand Division from Tebourba and defeating all attacks from the British 56th "Black Cat" Division"The New Zealanders around Takrouna estimated that 20,000 enemy were still in front of them, so SRY supported the newly arrived 56 (Black Cat) Division fresh from Syria in an attack on the 11th/12th May. Alas there was no success and many casualties." Monty's Marauders, Patrick Delaforce, p. 133, Pen and Sword, 2008, Free French and Moroccan Goums "On May 12th this Italian force was still resisting from positions just north of Enfidaville. A French division attacking their right was repulsed and then counterattacked. The Air Force, being called upon for aid, made a strong bombing attack at 1530, supported by all the artillery whose fire could be brought to bear." Finale in Tunisia, Colonel Conrad H. Lanza, p. 488, The Field Artillery, July 1943on 11 and 12 May. Russia Italy’s 8th Army, formed in July 1942, served as part of the German 29th Army Corps of Army Group B during Operation Barbarossa. Originally, the Italian Alpini Corps was to be used on the Caucasus Front, where its mountain-warfare training would have been very helpful in the German offensive, but instead the entire 8th Army was deployed on the Don Front. It was stretched too thinly to effectively resist the Russian counterattack during the Battle of Stalingrad. Heavily outnumbered and under-equipped, most its divisions were destroyed in the fighting withdrawal of the next few weeks. Sicily At the Casablanca Conference, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed ways of knocking Italy out of the war. It was eventually decided to launch Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, an island south-west of Italy. It was hoped that if Sicily was taken Benito Mussolini would be ousted from power. It was also argued that a successful invasion would force Adolf Hitler to send troops from the Eastern Front and help to relieve pressure on the Russian Army. On 10 July 1943, the British 8th Army landed at five points on the south-eastern tip of Sicily and General George Patton's US 7th Army at three beaches to the west of the British forces. The Allied troops met stiff opposition and Patton and his troops quickly took Gela, Licata and Vittoria. The British landings were also unopposed and Syracuse was taken on the the same day. General Patton now moved to the west of the island and the Italo-German Army was forced to retreat to behind the Simeto River. Patton took Palermo on 22 July cutting off 50,000 Italian troops in the west of the island. Patton now turned east along the northern coast of the island towards the port of Messina. Meanwhile, the US 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions attacking the Etna Line, were being held up by the 15th and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions and Aosta, Assietta and Livorno Divisions. The Americans carried out several amphibious landings to cut off the Axis defenders but they were unable to stop the evacuation across the Messina Straits to the Italian mainland. This included 40,000 German and 60,000 Italian troops, as well as 10,000 vehicles and 47 tanks. Liberation By the end of 1942 Italy was totally dependent on Germany. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Galaezzo Ciano, became increasingly frustrated with the way Mussolini was running the country. After a series of heated arguments with Mussolini and evidence of collusion, Ciano resigned in February 1943. The Allied invasion of Sicily created serious problems for Benito Mussolini. It was now clear that the Allies would use the island as a base for invading Italy. A meeting of the Fascist Grand Council was held on 24th July and Ciano got support for his idea that Italy should sign a separate peace with the Allies. The following day King Victor Emmanuel III told Mussolini he was no longer in control, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, declared martial law and placed Mussolini under arrest. On 3 September 1943, General Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army landed at Reggio and the British 1st Parachute Division at Taranto. These landings faced a heavy attack from the Regia Aeronautica."On September 4, 1943, they inflicted serious casualties on Anglo-American troops by repeatedly strafing the invasion beaches at Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria, then attacked U.S. landing craft, sinking four LCTs and damaging several others before being bounced by 30 Spitfires." The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe, Frank Joseph, p. 23, ABC-CLIO, 2011In danger of being captured by the German Paratroop forces in the Battle of Rome, Badoglio and the Italian Royal Family were forced to escape to Pescara where a government was set up under the protection of the Allies. The Granatieri Di Sardegna Division stands its ground in Rome for two days, preventing the Germans from taking part in the Battle of Salerno and throwing the struggling Allies back into the sea."After the Salerno landing the Germans had to fight the "Granatieri di Sardegna" division and other units for two days before taking control of Rome." That kept German units occupied around Rome who otherwise might have been at the Salerno beachhead during the critical first days after the landing." Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943-1945, Charles Messenger, p. 90, Lexington Books, 2001 On 13 October the Italian government declared war on Germany. While the Allies were landing in Italy, Adolf Hitler sent Otto Skorzeny and group of SS commandos to rescue Mussolini, who was being held in the Abruzzi Apennines. Mussolini was soon freed and Skorzeny flew him to safety. After a short stay in Germany Mussolini was sent to Gargagno in German-occupied northern Italy where he established the Fascist Salo Republic. On September 9 1943, German troops landed Bastia"Elsewhere, fighting between the erstwhile allies had already erupted. At Bastia, in Corsica, German navy troops seized the harbor at midnight ... Italian troops counterattacked early that morning and drove the Germans from their positions." Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940-1945, Vincent O'Hara, p. 220, Naval Institute Press, 2009, the principal port of Corsica. Over the next four weeks, the Friuli and Cremona Divisions"Only one hundred French troops landed on Corsica on September 12th, three days after fighting began at midnight on September 9th between the Germans and Italians when the Germans attacked Bastia ... The Italians had 74,000 men in Corsica including the "Cremona" and "Friuli" divisions. However, most of the troops were in coastal defense and support units ... When the Germans attacked Bastia on September 9th, the Italians fought the Germans alone ... the Italians ... deserve every credit for their part in the battle. The Italians on Corsica kept their arms ... The Italian units on Corsica moved to Sardinia and ... became "Gruppi di Combattimento" or Combat Groups and fought alongside the Allies. The Anglo-American version of events in Corsica, as well as those of the French, are examples of how official histories reinforced other mistaken accounts of what happened in the Italian Campaign." Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943-1945, Charles T. O'Reilly, p. 92, Lexington Books, 2001and Regia Marina"After the Armistice many small unit surface actions occurred in the western Mediterranean beginning on the morning of 9 September 1943. The German navy launched a surprise attack to capture the port of Bastia in northern Corsica. When this failed, a small flotilla consisting of UJ2203, UJ22119, five MFPs, and a rescue launch fled the harbor. The Italian destroyer escort Aliseo engaged them and sank all eight (with belated help from shore batteries and a corvette). Italian corvettes had several other skirmishes with German coastal craft and shore batteries at Piombino sank TA11 before the Italian navy withdrew south in accordance with the terms of the armistice." The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945, Vincent O'Hara, Naval Institute Press, 2013, which had taken the side of new Italian government of Marshal Badoglio, drove the German 90th and 91st Panzergrenadier Divisions back into the sea."The more the fight intensified, the more their determination to defeat the Germans and drive them out of the island increased. The Italians knew the territory well, so as each German group tried to enter the main roads where the Italians had established positions, the Germans suffered great losses. In many cases, in order to expedite their exodus to Bastia to join the other Germans, they rendered inoperable or even destroyed large amounts of their own equipment and abandoned it. They also abandoned eight hundred of their men, who were promptly taken prisoner." The Ibex Trophy, John Cammalleri; Salvatore Cammalleri, p. 124, iUniverse, 2011"The Nazis were eventually chased to their bridgehead at Bastia, where, with air support and far superior numbers, they were able to embark for Italy. In total, the liberation of Corsica left 75 French soldiers dead, 245 Italians and around 1,000 Germans." The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis, Matthew Cobb, p. 193, Simon and Schuster, 2009 On 23 September 1943, Pietro Badoglio and General Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Italian armistice. However, a significant part of the entire Regia Aeronautica"Unlike the Regia Marina, the Regia Aeronautica went over almost in its entirety to the Salo Republic, where it became the Aeronautica Nazionale Republicana (ANR)." Mussolini's War, Frank Joseph, p. 192, Helion and Company, 2010and Nembo Airborne Infantry Division"A significant part of the Italian 184th (Nembo) Parachute Division went over to the German side and served actively with the Germans." The Mediterranean Theater of Operations: Sicily and the Surrender of Italy, Lieutenant Colonel Albert N. Garland, p. 535, UNITED STATES ARMY, 1993continued to fight alongside the Germans and the Allied armies made only slow progress as the moved north towards Rome. Two Bersaglieri battalions of the Emilia Division in Yugoslavia joined the Germanss. Bersaglieri and Italian Marines took control of Naples on 1 October"Until the Allies arrived there has been havoc and the city is wrecked as a result of Allied bombing, German demolitions and the pitched battles which Italian regular army Bersaglieri regiments loyal to the King have been fighting with the Germans. When we arrived, there was shooting everywhere. Even six and eight year old boys were shooting, firing abandoned weapons into the air in play. Disregarding the fighting, civilians turned out all over the city to give the Americans and British a thunderous ovation. The German rearguards, caught by the speed of the Allied advance from Torre Annunziata, had seized scores of Italians youths, old men and women as hostages and retreated with them into public buildings to fight the Bersaglieri. Civilians took courage from the Bersaglieri, and commandeered all available vehicles which they raced along the streets firing at every German at every German in sight." Yanks Busy With Clearing of Naples, By Herny T. Gorrell, p. 5 Valley Morning Star 3 October 1943"On the morning of September 28, Allied ships were spotted off Capri and the Neapolitans believed a landing was imminent. Attacks on the Germans resumed, particularly in the Vomero district on the west side of the city. Spontaneous uprisings began all over Naples. People seized weapons from the arsenals of the disbanded Italian armed forces, which had been left unguarded by the Germans, and by the afternoon of the next day the Germans were under attack. Bands of gunmen darted out of hiding places to strike at the Germans, then disappeared into the maze of alleys and side streets that honeycomb Naples. The first impulse of Colonel Scholl was to leave the city, but Hitler ordered Naples reduced to "mud and ashes." Scholl threatened to kill 100 civilians for every German soldier wounded or killed. The Germans destroyed scores of houses and businesses, cut of water supplies and left port facilities in ruins. They planned to blow up aqueducts and power plants before they departed. On September 29, the Germans sent a long line of tanks toward the city center. But partisan units destroyed several tanks with cannon fire, immobilized the rest and blew them up with mines." Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce, Ray Moseley, p. 35, Taylor Trade Publications, 2004and later that day the British 8th Army captured the Foggia airfields. General Albrecht Kesselring now withdrew his forces to what became known as the Gustav Line on the Italian peninsula south of Rome. Organized along the Garigliano and Rapido rivers it included Monte Cassino, a hilltop site of a sixth-century Benedictine monastery. Defended by 15 German divisions the line was fortified with concrete bunkers, barbed-wire and minefields. In December 1943, the Allies suffered heavy loses while trying to capture the monastery. In January 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander in Italy, ordered a new Cassino offensive combined with an amphibious landing at Anzio, a small port on the west coast of Italy. The main objective of the operation was to cut the communication lines of the German 10th Army and force a withdrawal from the Gustav Line. Attacks on Monte Cassino on 17 January resulted in the Germans reserves moving to the Gustav Line and on 22 January, Allied troops under General John Lucas landed at Anzio. Lucas decided not to push straight away to the interior hills. This enabled the Fascist authorities in Rome to order one Nembo Airborne Battalion, one Italian Waffen SS Battalion and the Barbarigo Marine Battalion to the area, along with the San Giorgio, Colleoni and Da Giussano Artillery Battalions to help contain the 6th Corps on the Anzio beachhead. On 12 February the exhausted US Army at Cassino were replaced by the New Zealand Corps. Alexander now decided to use the New Zealanders in another attempt to capture Cassino. General Bernard Freyberg, who was in charge of the infantry attack, asked for the monastery be bombed. Despite evidence that no fire was coming from the monastery, General Harold Alexander agreed and it was destroyed by the United States Air Force on 15 February 1944. Once the monastery had been bombed, the German paratroopers moved into the ruins and the rubble provided much cover. On 18h May 1944, General Wladyslaw Anders' Polish Corps and General Alphonse Juin's French Corps captured Monte Cassino. This opened a corridor for Allied troops and they reached Anzio on 24 May. The German defence now began to crumble and General Harold Alexander ordered General Mark Clark to trap and destroy the retreating German 10th Army. However, Clark ignored this order and instead headed for Rome and liberated the city on 4 June. American casualties at Anzio alone were 59,000. The Italian Monte Rosa, Italia and San Marco Divisions under General Mario Carloni, entrenched on the west side of the Gothic Line, brought the mobile American, British and Brazilian forces to a grinding halt for several months. However, a counteroffensive aimed at taking the Allied supply port of Livorno in late December, Offensiva di Natale (Christmas Offensive), became bogged down in the face of fierce Allied air attacks.Strong Allied air and ground forces were thrown into battle today in an effort to halt the German assault on a six-mile front in the Serchio river valley, where American doughboys have been driven from the important road town of Barga in two days of fierce fighting. The Germans declared that the U.S. 92nd division had been knocked back "some kilometres", which evidently was aimed at the vital Allied supply port of Livorno (Leghorn) ... The Allied tactical air forces hurled the full fury of their bombs, cannon and machineguns against the attacking enemy, with well over 1,000 warplanes participating in the headlong strikes against troop concentrations, gun posts, occupied buildings and road junctions in the battle area. American Thunderbolt and Mustang fighters and Mitchell medium bombers were joined by British and South African Spitfires and Kittyhawks in the blistering assault. Many fires and explosions were seen around Barga and two towns in the immediate northwest, Castelnuovo and Gallicano. GERMANS PUSH AHEAD ON WEST COAST OF SICILY, The Lewiston Daily Sun, 29 December 1944On 2 May 1945, the 75th German Army Corps under General Ernst Schlemmer surrendered unconditionally in Biella to the partisan commanders, with Captain Patrick Amoore of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) acting as the go-between. The Allied invasion of Italy, launched with much optimism after the Allied victory in Sicily in August 1943, turned into a brutal, protracted campaign, and costly civil war. After the Italian Fascist Regime fell from power and was replaced by a new Badoglio Government, the Italian campaign became an extended battle between advancing Allied troops and German defenders and RSI reinforcements. Monte Cassino and the Battle of Garfagnana pushed many Allied soldiers to their breaking point. The military campaign ended only when the fighting in Berlin ended. By then, more than 300,000 US and British Commonwealth troops who fought in Italy had been killed or were wounded or captured or missing. German casualties totaled around 434,000. References Category:North African Campaign Category:1941 Category:1940